TCMA InterCollegiate Bowl: The Lead Up

Each year, the Texas City Management Association hosts a conference, for high-ranking public officials to learn more about the challenges facing (and solutions for) local government. One of the goals of the TCMA is to attract, recruit, and develop young professionals who might seek a career in government. To that end, they sponsor the “InterCollegiate Bowl (ICB)”, allowing college students to compete for the title of “Best Public Administration School in Texas.”

Competitors:

Our participation in this contest was unique, in that we are the only undergraduate team competing–indeed, as far as we know, we are the only undergraduate team to ever compete. This year, the competitors included:

• Sam Houston State University (The LEAP Center)
• UTSA (MPA Program)
• TAMU (Bush School’s MPA Program)
• SFA (MPA Program)
• UNT (MPA Program)

It is a little intimidating, because our competition is generally older (our mean team age is 20) and more professionally experienced. But our goal is not necessarily to win (although we aren’t averse to the idea…), but to do the best we can do. And what we know we can control is our preparation and our professionalism, and we want to excel in those areas.

Contest Components:

The contest consists of five broad components:

• Networking: involving developing fully a LinkedIn profile, making connections in City Government, and attending a regional TCMA meeting;
• Coaching: working with city professionals to learn the careers in the field;
• Community Service: a specific project that benefits the community;
• Capstone Project: A research project that can benefit the communtiy;
• A knowledge contest: A Jeopardy-style game reflecting the knowledge of the students about city government.

The networking, coaching, and community service aspects of the contest were largely completed prior to the event, and we submitted our completed folder early on Day One of the TCMA.

Our capstone was also completed, but the grading of that component is done at the conference on Day 3. Thus, we stayed late on Day 2, and we set up our presentation so we would be ready for the morning session.

There is much to do before our “showdown day,” which is Saturday, June 22, but we’ve done what we can do, and the results show it!

Of course, the other teams will catch up and get very close to our score before the Jeopardy-Style knowledge contest, but at this early stage, our preparation has paid off!